An elderly Greeley woman on trial for threatening a neighbor with a pellet gun that closely resembles a handgun told jurors on Tuesday she never pointed the gun at anyone, and she only kept the gun to shoot snakes in her yard.

Charges against Joyce Bradmon, 76, stem from what she and her neighbors describe as an ongoing dispute. One neighbor, Michael Crawley, 30, called police and said she pointed a gun at him in August 2011, after she yelled at his child for drawing on a sidewalk with chalk.

Bradmon testified Tuesday that she only held the gun on her lap after oiling it, and she had never loaded or fired it.

"I would never threaten anybody with a gun," Bradmon said. "I've seen people who were shot with BB guns and who were shot with live ammunition."

Bradmon said she had seen several snakes in her yard, and she purchased the pellet gun to shoot them. She said she also planned to let her son use the gun when he went hiking. On the day of the incident, police responded to her home with guns drawn, and she told them it was not a real gun sitting in her lap, Bradmon said.

Bradmon, who said she's a retired judge from Pennsylvania and has lived in Colorado for decades, faces one count of felony menacing. Attorneys are scheduled to give closing arguments Wednesday morning, and jurors will begin deliberating thereafter. If convicted, Bradmon could face up to three years in prison.